fun little booklet and some great art, but the game itself doesn't seem fully fleshed out and is kind of a mishmesh. as far as i'm concered it's more of a game to take some ideas from and then run them in a different game. here's hoping for a take that builds on these ideas and fleshes them out more, maybe oven a 2e of this.

OVA (Second Edition) is an anime-focused RPG, but that really means you can play anything with it. The second edition improves upon the presentation and content from the first edition, but either is recommended.

The system is d6 based and involves assigning dice to a set of traits and weaknesses. The list of these provided by the game hits most things gamers care about, but it is easy to tweak it as required by the tone, power-level, and setting in question (and the game shows you how). Players roll dice based on their traits and weaknesses and then keep the highest value rolled (doubles, triples, etc. are added together into a single value).

It plays super fast and the combat options makes for some cool strategic choices when choosing your combat stance each round. Players and GM can create tailored attacks and defenses based on base traits and tweaks that give characters more options in battle as well.

The look of the game is amazing. Clay Gardner wrote and laid-out the product and it features the art of Niko Geyer. This is like Anime-styled Nirvana. Every image is gorgeous and builds on the cadre of sample characters used as examples in the game text.

I have GMed and played OVA in both editions and it is fun, fast, and handled a variety of genres and settings without breaking a sweat.

This is a great open-world game, which allows for a lot of creative freedom. It doesn't come with a setting or any pre-made adventures, so your GM will need to do some planning and organising, but you can do almost anything you want with it. However the downside to having non-restrictive rules is that you players can do pretty much anything, meaning that creating any kind of plot structure in a large group is difficult.

I would also not recommend this game to any players wo play just to get the highest stats or to be the best, because the rules are very easy to exploit in that way. This game is best for people who like to role-play in order to tell a story.

really does the job of showing how the game works. Though they could have chosen a less snobby character who seems to look down his nose to those he is explaining the rules and background to.

I bought this looking for a successor to the classic (but flawed) RPG, Big Eyes Small Mouth. This is not only a spiritual successor, but a vast improvement in general on anime role-playing. From the moment you boot up the .pdf, you're going to want a print version of this book (sadly not available at this time). The system is simple, easy and fun, with character creation not hindered by complicated balance mechanisms. I could use this to simulate Akira, Dragonball Z, or almost any project I want to make.

Every person I have shown this game to has walked away not only impressed by the game, but eager to play it and buy a copy. If you are looking for a rules lite system that's more complex than RISUS but less complex than Fate, this is your baby. I would stress that game is not limited exclusively to anime - you can easily play a wide variety of game styles in the system. As well, if you've read some of the creator's posts in his resident forums, there are very thoughtful design decisions in the game mechanics.

Summary. Fast character creation. Character modelling options unseen since Marvel Super Heroes from TSR. Fast, quick action resolution. Fun, meaningful conflict/combat options. Well illustrated (in anime style). Well written, with reasonable flow in the book. For $15 for the .pdf, you're not likely to regret your purchase.

At a glance: Fantastic art! Simple, easy-to-learn system. Very engaging, friendly and encouraging to new players and anime fans. Well-written GM section. And again, I need to mention- AMAZING ART!

I would totally buy this as a print product, even in black and white.

I originally bought this to supplement two other anime games. I love the way this game goes about character creation and encourages free form development. Basically, if you want to recreate your favorite character from any given anime series, this is probably the best game for it. This game has a very un-complicated way of doing things.

I think this rpg suffers from the same flaw a lot of other core system, non-genre specific games have always had. It tends to be more centered on the fantasy elements of gaming. I acknowledge that even now, most gamers had their first exposure to the hobby from D&D and that does tend to influence game design. OVA leans toward a lot of the non-mecha, no-firearms, no-spacecraft type anime. While it does allow for emulation of the mecha genre, a lot of brain sweat is needed on the GM's part to get there as opposed to say, the standard sword and sorcery game. If you want to make a character based on Inu Yasha, Record of the Lodoss Wars, Full Metal Alchemist, Ikki Tousen, or Sailor Moon, or something similar, this game is ideal. If you're wanting something more involving giant robot combat, massive starships, cyborgs with huge guns, or gritty cyberpunk drama, I think you're probably better off going with a different game and using OVA as a way to develop characters before the system is applied. I also didn't get a good horror anime vibe from this, but that's a very narrow genre and is probably better treated elsewhere. (It could be done, but again there would be a bit of strain on the GM.)

I can totally see myself running a game based on Slayers, Ikki Tousen, Freezing, and maybe even Chrome-Shelled Regios using this system. I also think it might be a bit more kid-friendly, but I'll have to test that theory first. I also think, like so many other anime rpg's, a separate sourcebook would help in dealing with various sub-genres within anime gaming (Mecha and cyberpunk in particular.) I hope the folks at Wise Turtle can keep up the good work.

I absolutely love this game system as it allows for such versatility that it puts many other to shame. My friends and I started with the original OVA allowing us to pursue game ideas we couldn't in other systems. While we also enjoyed BESM and it works well for many Anime genre stories, it has more confined rules as compared to OVA. The first game we ran using OVA was a Macross saga. The flexibility in the rules and adaptability of the system itself made for one of the best multi-session games our group ever played. OVA revised answered some ambiguous rules that we had to wing it in the first edition of OVA. the system is also very easy to learn and even new comers need not worry if they don't know everything about it as each section of character building explains what is what. All in all I think that OVA is the new BESM for anime style games but as it's not limited to that and easy to use allows for OVA to be a very proficient game system.

I love it, its an easy to use system with a great deal of character generation freedom. You never really need a huge amount of dice and the freedom to do things is just fantastic. I highly reccomend it to any RPG and Anime fans.

This is a new one to me, but not a new game. I just got it and I like what I see so far. The system is very different that BESM, but it has some good character creation guidelines that I think would work nice with any game. The book is a thin 125+ pages, but that is really all it needs due to it's system and design.

OVA stands for Open Versatile Anime, and it's a pun in Anime circles. It also stands for Original Video Animation. There are the perfunctory introductions for the RPG player, the Anime fan and people in general.

OVA has some artwork from Niko Geyer, the same artist from BESM. This sorta gives OVA the same feel. Going to his blog you can see some of the art in OVA and it is nice.

Character creation is the heart of OVA, and there are some good things here. The character creation has the player starting with a conversation with the Game Master and even other players. This would seem pointless in other games, but important in OVA. It helps with the next steps and helps decide what sort of game will be played. The interesting part here is that the rules encourage players to come up with their character before reading the rules. So the next step is the Concept stage.

Many games have something similar. Here though it is an actual step. Typically this can be something as simple as "magical girl with a flying cat" or "darkly handsome swordmaster with a dark past". In the world of Anime RPGs these are actually very common concepts. Since OVA is an Ability based system (more on this) the concept help define what a character can and can't do.

Abilities and Weakness are the heart and soul of OVA. Abilities (sometimes called Attributes, sort of confusing) combine the various numbers you would normally see in other games. In Unisystem this would be combining Attributes, Skills and Qualities. So things like "Magic", "Weapon" and "Cute" would replace all the other numbers that could be combined to create these; ie Dex + Armed Mayhem for Weapon. This makes for a very focused sort of character, which is exactly what you would expect in an Anime. You can add all sorts of other Abilities as needed. So our Dark Swordmaster can add Hobby (Origami) as a hobby, which would be appropriate. Weakness are the same, only like Drawbacks, such as "Easy to Anger", "Bizarre Appearance" or "Obsession". Abilities are ranked from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best of the best. Weaknesses are ranked -1 to -3. Characters should start around 1 or 2 with no abilities at 5. Character creation is matter of agreeing on how many points is the power cap. You can choose 0, so Abilities have to equal Weaknesses, a top point say 20 or so points of Abilities where 5 can be free and 15 are bought with Weakness points. All really easy to be honest.

There are number of sample characters covering a variety of anime tropes. Some have a lot of Attributes and thus a lot of Weaknesses, others have much fewer. There is a stat block for "Basic Statistics" which includes the concept, age, height and weight and other basic information. It makes for a very simple character sheet that is also surprisingly full of information. There are good number of Abilities and Weaknesses, and what is not here can easily be converted from other sources. Though I could not find anything that was "missing". There are Power Perks and Flaws, which act like Power Feats in M&M.

The system is an easy one, roll dice go for a target number. Combat is similar. There is a good DM's section and a bunch of sample characters and NPCs, all of which can be used to design other characters or use as NPCs or PCs.

The system is simple and really easy to play. The character creation is similar to another new game I grabbed "Cartoon Action Hour 2". In fact I bet you could easily convert between the two systems without too much trouble. Where CAH2 does not give too many examples of Abilities/Powers, OVA does. You could some of the Abilities in OVA as ideas for CAH2. Sort of defeats the purpose of creating your own as CAH2 suggests, but a good place to start. I also suppose that you could use the abilities from BESM 3 as well. I would bet that you could take any BESM 3 character and convert it to OVA with just a couple of edits on the sheet.

OVA certainly feels like the spiritual successor to BESM. There is a lot of similarity in feel and purpose. While BESM is crunchier than OVA, OVA is more flexible. The powers are fairly well defined and easy to use/grasp.

I found this better than Tri-Stat/BESM, but it still has problems that need tweaking.

OVA is a multi-genre roleplaying game much like the better known “Big Eyes, Small Mouth”. And just like BESM it's meant to bring the tropes of Japanese anime to the gaming table. I would not call myself an avid anime fan, but I’ve seen a few movies and TV series that I really enjoyed. And so it’s no surprise I eventually picked up a anime RPG.

Some years back I picked up a copy of the aforementioned BESM but I found it a bit too crunchy for my tastes. As I’ve mentioned several times before, I prefer rules-lite games. And although BESM is extremely versatile and can be used to run games in any conceivable genre, it was not was I looking for.

More recently I heard about OVA and decided to give it a chance. And I haven’t regret this decision. The digest-sized softcover book contains a very versatile but still easy rules system. Even if you are not into anime per se, OVA could be an interesting alternative to other multi-genre games. When you buy the book directly from Lulu it sets you back $29.95. This is a bit expensive for my tastes, but on the pro side, OVA has a lot of anime charm, great artwork and it’s full-color.

What makes OVA different from most classic systems is that not every character is described by the same set of attributes. When creating a character you pick and choose the attributes a character is good at. If he’s strong, you write down the Strong attribute. If he’s wearing armor, you note down the Armor attribute. Each attribute is also ranked from +1 to +5. When you use the freeform character creation method you can pick Attributes and levels as you see fit. After choosing the Attributes it’s also recommended that you pick a few Weaknesses as well. Everyone knows that a character with no flaws gets boring fast. Weaknesses are rated from –1 to –3.

Aside from the freeform method where you just create your character as you see fit, there are also several ways to limit a character’s power. One way to do this is called “Ground Zero” in which you sum up the levels of all your Strength and Weaknesses. The sum shouldn’t be higher than 5 or lower than –5 if the character is still to be considered within the limits of the campaign. Each character also has a Health and an Endurance value with describes the characters ability to sustain damage, fitness and vitality.

The majority of the book is taken up by sample characters and an extensive list of attributes and weaknesses for the players to pick from. Please note that even weapons the character is carrying or armor he’s wearing is considered attributes. And so are the spells of a magician. Most attributes and weaknesses listed in the book are described by a few paragraphs of text and give the player an overview what the different levels do.

The game provides several sample characters that not only can be used to start playing immediately but they also are great examples of the versatility of the system. I can easily imagine running anything from Full Metal Alchemist over Slayers to Love Hina with it. The dice mechanic used in OVA is pretty easy as well. Usually you roll 2d6, take the highest number. If you have appropriate Attributes or Weaknesses, you add as many dice as you have levels. If doubles, triples etc. are rolled these are added together. The highest single (or double, triple etc.) result is then taken. Is the result higher than a difficulty number decided by the GM, the action was successful. Ones are never added together and if you have more appropriate Weaknesses than Attributes “negative” dice may be rolled. In this case doubles are ignored. So, if you roll 3 negative dice, a result of 5,5,2 equals 2.

In combat each player can make one attack per turn and an unlimited amount of defensive actions. Multiple attack actions are possible, too, but the attack rolls are then modified by the number of all actions taken. If you want to attack three times you have to reduce your number of dice by 3. There’s no Range in OVA. Either you can reach your opponent in one round or you can’t. It depends on the GM’s discretion and the situation if a target it in range or not. This is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but I have to admit, I like it. The author of OVA has also added classical anime tropes like gag damage and the angry female strike, which is impossible to dodge (even if you saw it coming) but which is always gag damage. Gag damage is of course very painful but it wears off after a very short time.

The book also contains rules for character advancement, a short GM chapter and several sample NPCs that be used either as additional inspiration for player characters or as enemies or allies of the player characters. There book contains no setting, so any aspiring OVA GM will either have to use a homebrew setting or the world of his favorite anime. But given the nature of the rules it should be pretty easy to adapt almost any setting to OVA easily.

I have to admit I like the Open Versatile Anime RPG very much. It has pretty easy to learn rules, supports narrative gameplay and is fun to read. And even if you are not an anime fan, you can still use OVA to run games, if you don’t mind the anime style artwork and ignore some of the anime tropes in the Attributes and combat sections.

As some reviewers have already stated, this is a good game, with one major flaw: the abilities are redundant. What I have done is to re-work them down to about 50% of the number of abilities to choose from, which makes the game simpler, without really destroying its versatility. Other than that, this game is a good buy.

I rated it a 3 because this one problem is a major flaw of the system that must be over-come if you want to play OVA; you must fix this fact, in order to make the game work well.

Why not just have one ability description, and call the ability or weakness by another name to add flavor? That way, one rule works for 2 or 3 abilities; makes a simpler, shorter rule book too.

IMHO

System Overview: I believe OVA accomplishes its design as a fast, intuitive, simple, versatile anime roleplaying game. Character creation is relatively simple and characters generated can be very unique at the same time. My players generated characters in about 15 minutes. The Ricochet system is very unique and intuitive. Every character starts at average- rolling 2 dice for most actions. During Character generation you simply assign abilities that are better than average and Weaknesses that are lower than average. Abilities and Weaknesses should balance but it is up to the GM and the campaign style for how balanced you want Abilities and Flaws to be. Virtually any character can be created with this simple system and it doesn't take much time at all. In my opinion Character generation was much faster and cleaner than BESM. Well, no system is perfect and I'll outline the games few weaknesses. First off, some players who want to min-max their characters can do so very easily without GM supervision. It can be easy to take several abilities that stack together for in one action when playing. It is also possible for some players to pick a dozen weaknesses just so they can get the points to spend on abilities. So honest, mature players who aren't trying to dominate the game are needed. This isn't a complaint though, with lighter systems stuff like this happens and you just have to have a good cooperative group who are willing to be fair.

Playtest: Well, I did an odd thing. I ran an 'Age of Conan' adventure with OVA. But my players loved it anyway. Combat resolution is simple and fast paced. There are a few options available for combat manuevers that worked fine. Since the one-shot I was running was a heavily combat-centered scenario, I give the game high marks in that area since my players never got tired or confused with how combat works, it was very fast-paced action. Combat did not get 'bogged down' for us but since it was a Conan setting, none of us had the 'Power Move' ability from the game. In OVA you can give your PC a 'Power Move' that is a staple of most anime, ie: "Magic Crystal Butterfly Attack!" These 'Power Moves' are created with different effects at character generation however, and shouldn't present a problem during combat, you just pay your 'endurance pts' for powering the attack and boom, there it is. Anyway, my group had a lot of fun.

Nitpicks: Everyone in my group dislikes the D20 system so having 'Health Points' to keep track of was a bit of a nuisance. None of us like to subtract, erase, and rewrite our Health points. If we play OVA again we will probably find a way to make wound thresholds similar to Savage Worlds or Silhouette instead.

A great source for any Anime or RP gamer looking to tweak the D20 or D6 rules into their own cartoony format or system!

Keeping this brief, I'll simply say that as long as you don't demand a high volume of complex and detailed rules, OVA is a very good little rpg indeed.

It's light enough to get non-gamers who like anime into it, and just about crunchy enough for old hands. Simpler than BESM by far, and a faster play.

It will need a good GM to run, and assumes the players will get into the apporpriate genre/style, because otherwise it's probably easy to break.

Otherwise, top stuff, well recommended, especially at the price.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Good look, mostly good art, nice layout.

Excellent indexing and reference, fully bookmarked.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: No 'quick sheets' for the rules is a missed opportunity, but that's nit-picking.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>